West Asheville's Lucy Herring can stay open next school year, officials say. Now what?

ASHEVILLE - Lucy S. Herring Elementary can stay open next year, officials say, a reversal from an announcement of closure a little over a week earlier as the districts looks to an incoming $8.2 million renovation project for the West Asheville school. But if students will remain there throughout the project has yet to be officially decided.

At a March 14 meeting, Asheville City Schools Superintendent Maggie Fehrman presented an updated construction plan to assembled parents on the tiered risers of the school's planetarium. She extended a "sincere apology" for the "shock" of her initial March 5 announcement, made at a parent team meeting in that same room.

Initially, the district said the school would be closed during the 2024-25 school year for "extensive renovations," and the 250 students relocated to the system's four other elementary schools. A subsequent March 7 notice to parents said the district would take a "pause" and look at ways to possibly keep the school open.

“When I started digging deeper, started getting a better understanding of the project and what the options were for the project, it does boil down to, there was some inaccurate information that I was given," Fehrman said March 14.

“We put in accountability measures moving forward to make sure this never happens again,” she assured parents later during the meeting.

What are the options?

Current options under consideration are keeping the school open with students in attendance during construction — acknowledging that each of the school's roughly 17 kindergarten through fifth-grade classrooms will have to move once during construction, and there will be noise and dust, though steps will be taken to mitigate those — or moving Lucy Herring as a community elsewhere. There is also room for other ideas, Fehrman said, encouraging parents to assist in brainstorming.

Principal Sonna Jamerson is leading the formation of a "joint construction team," made up of school staff, parents and representatives from contractor Vannoy Construction. According to Fehrman's presentation, the group will meet March 18 to decide which option is best, and communicate with stakeholders by March 22.

While the decision hasn't yet been made, the majority of parent questions revolved around plans to stay open, with logistics fielded by the construction team and Ronnie Lunsford, with Buncombe County General Services.

The primary focus of the meeting, Jamerson said, was to address the community's desire to stay together during the upcoming school year. She thanked the assembled parents for the way they "showed up," and Fehrman, as well, for having the "courage to turn this ship around and look at what could be done."

"We are such a strong school community and it’s something that I’m so very proud of. Like I said in the beginning, this has been extremely hard. It was like being at a funeral last week, because this is our family,” she said.

How will construction impact students?

Construction is scheduled to start in mid-June and estimated to be completed in fall 2025. The more than 40-year-old building needs renovations, including upgrades to heating and cooling systems, new bathrooms, all new mechanical systems, a new ceiling and roof, all new windows, kitchen upgrades, and a three-tiered security vestibule.

The project was approved previously by the School Capital Fund Commission and Board of Commissioners. As a capital commission project, the major source of revenue for the fund is from the Article 39 sales tax. A portion of the tax is allocated for local school capital projects, such as new buildings and repairs, under a 1983 state law.

Lunsford said the district has worked on several similar projects with Vannoy, including the Ira B. Jones Elementary renovations in 2018-19, which finished on time, on budget and with zero safety issues, he said. Vannoy has experience working on active school sites, as well as hospitals, and though there will be some overlap with students, all workers are required to have background checks prior to accessing the building.

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Classroom renovations, part of the project's Phase II, will be done in clusters, with the goal of each group only moving once. Construction on each grouping of rooms will last about 45 days. Noise is "unavoidable" Lunsford said, but the crew will aim to do the noisiest work in early mornings, afternoons or during lunches.

Kevin Aull, with Vannoy, said the most "noise disruptive work," would be timed to happen during the summer.

"I think we do have the phasing set up where we can be minimally disruptive," he said.

To mitigate air quality and dust issues, fans can be installed, as well as air scrubbers, using a HEPA filter to clean the air. To prevent tracking dust, crews will utilize sticky mats.

Contrary to the information provided in the March 7 message to parents, there will be space for incoming kindergarten students, as well as for all rising first- through fifth-graders. While the pre-K room is offline, the school will have to obtain a temporary license to move the students, but as long as that is possible, pre-K can also remain at Lucy Herring.

There is still the option for students to transfer, Fehrman said, if that best suits their needs. A new Lucy Herring transfer form must be filled out by March 25. If students want to continue at Lucy Herring, no action is needed.

Parents react

There were scatterings of applause throughout the presentation — some of the loudest during assurances that this would not happen again — but some parents remain skeptical, trust shaken by the district.

The announcement of Lucy Herring's potential closure, and then the pivot, came during ongoing discussions around closure of the beloved Montford North Star Academy. The school board approved consolidation of the Montford school with Asheville Middle in a 5-2 vote March 11, leaving many parents shaken.

James Rogers, a Lucy Herring parent, who called the initial Lucy Herring announcement as a "communication debacle," said March 14 that he left the meeting feeling better than when he walked in.

He described it as “an ounce of skepticism, but a pound of hope." Students staying at the school seemed to be the most "sensible" option, though he looked at it as a cost-benefit analysis:

“Do you risk turmoil of being scattered to the wind at other schools versus the inconvenience and noise of construction?” he asked. He hoped for parents to be empowered to make the decisions for their children.

Dana Roberson, another Lucy Herring parent, said the opportunity to stay in the building and keep the Lucy Herring community intact was a "big win."

“I think it is a great situation for our community, our staff, our students that need that extra support, that need to have the home that is their school, that family that is their school family," she said.

Of the way forward, Fehrman said facility master planning is on the docket.

"There's been a lot we've had to address in a short time," Fehrman said. "I feel like we've made some really critical decisions in the last several weeks that will help us make sure we can just pause, breathe and plan for the future."

More: Days after announcing Asheville school closure, ACS to explore possibility of staying open

More: ACS votes to close Montford North Star, consolidate with Asheville Middle in 5-2 vote

Sarah Honosky is the city government reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. News Tips? Email [email protected] or message on Twitter at @slhonosky. Please support local, daily journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.

This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Lucy Herring can stay open next school year, officials say. Now what?